Senate votes to ease rules for Lake Delhi dam financing

A bill making its way through the legislature may reduce the cost for repairs at Lake Delhi in eastern Iowa.

The dam on the Maquoketa River that created the lake was washed away by flooding in June of 2010. The “Combined Lake Delhi Recreational Facility and Water Quality District” issued bonds to pay for a new dam.

The bill that’s cleared the Senate today would let the association reissue the bonds and Senator Randy Feenstra of Hull estimates it will save about $300,000.

“It’s not adding anything to the bonds,” Feenstra says. “It’s just simply refinancing them. Through the refinancing, this bill would say you don’t have to take another public vote, but a public vote would be required for any other bonds moving forward.”

In 2011, residents in the Lake Delhi district overwhelmingly approved a six-million dollar bond referendum to help finance reconstruction of the lake’s dam. Gates on the rebuilt dam were closed last summer and the 400-acre lake was refilled in about three weeks.